How to Streamline Your Huddles

Before we start, you will need to know that a huddle is not a meeting. A meeting is where you sit down with different members of your teams to discuss issues in depth that concern the individuals in attendance. A huddle is a quick get together of your entire team, usually standing to inform and update everybody. This will be a bullet point run through of the most relevant and pressing matters to help your team perform better.

Why Should You Have A Huddle?

You can do your best to increase clear communication with your staff across the business but sometimes things get lost along the way. A huddle is a quick way to update the team, so they are all on the same page.

It builds enthusiasm within your team, they will feel a part of something if they have a clearer picture of the business’s overall objectives and what is expected of them.

Don’t get into a muddle with your huddle

We have compiled a list of factors to help your huddles run a lot smoother:

– Keep it brief: Having a 5 – 15 minute huddle will be more productive than hours crammed into a meeting room. It might be worth holding the stand up in reception before you open the doors for the day.

– Get Up, Stand Up: Have everyone standing or at least perching on things for you huddle, this gives it another reason to keep it brief, it also makes it less formal.

– Are you Daily, Weekly or Monthly?: Depending on how busy you are or how big your dental practice is determines how often you hold your huddles. Where a daily huddle will cover the day to day running of your dental practice, a weekly or a monthly one can afford to be longer and more in-depth. Remember a lot can happen in a day let alone a week.

– Stick to the Point: Have a pre-planned agenda of key points you wish to cover off. These should be: anything urgent your team needs to be aware of, a run through the day’s schedule, noting if there are any new patients and if there is anything left over from the day before.

– Take The Lead: I know most places say let the team lead the huddle but it’s important to keep things on track and push the huddle on. It might be worth kicking off the huddle with a brief intro then run through the key points to cover off, then open it up to the rest of the team.

– Raise Issue But Don’t Lower Spirits: This is certainly the place to raise any issue that have been identified because someone else may have a quick solution but don’t let it turn in a moan fest or a blame game: if there is an issue that can’t be resolved quickly, then it will have to be a separate meeting.

– Are You Smashing Goals: Are you talking about the practices KPI’s and overall goals, if the rest of team are aware of these they will feel more motivated to reach targets. It will also make them feel like they are truly contributing towards the success of the practice. It’s worth implementing your MPC Dashboard (MyPractice Cloud). This shows you an overall view of your practices performance and something definitely you can share with your team.

– Go Out On a High: If you can help it, don’t go out on a negative note. One of the ideas for these huddles is you make everyone excited for the day ahead, to make them feel motivated. So always finish positive.

The huddle is the perfect way to share information and updates with your team quickly, it encourages open communication and transparency among colleagues.

It’s designed to make people excited for the day ahead and to keep them focused on the goals of your practice – no wonder sports teams huddle before a game.

A well run morning huddle can set the tone for a productive and successful day. Our team of experts have put together a simple guide to help you spark your morning meetings and achieve the best results. Please click here to download your free guide.